The moving vans are in Tallahassee and it can only mean one thing. Queer News Tonight has predicted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' potential run for President of the United States for more than a year.
But we can confirm tonight it’s not moving vans that signal the announcement. Florida GOP politicians and political insiders say it’s actually June LGBTQ+ Pride Month that is the signal that DeSantis is getting ready for a major announcement.
For weeks I have been talking to GOP insiders including state elected officials and GOP advisors to try to understand the motivation behind the recent months of the Florida legislative session, President Trump's legal challenges and what the Governor will do next.
In breaking news Queer News Tonight can report Governor DeSantis will announce his Presidential ambitions with intentional timing as a statement against June LGBTQ+ Pride Month. A legislative director for a Tampa Bay GOP Senator spoke to me on the condition of confidentiality.
He said “...all of the pieces are now in place. The Presidential campaign announcement will coincide with June gay pride. The campaign will contrast the Governors success on issues for Parental choice, Transgender identity, drag queens and other LGBT topics and the visibility of the month long celebration. The national stage of his success at the last session combined with the attention the nation will have on pride month is perfect to launch his campaign. The timing has already been determined.”
A GOP Florida representative confirmed the Governor's choice to launch his Presidential campaign for a June 1 goal line by telling me "The Governor will announce his Presidential campaign timed at the beginning of LGBTQ pride month. The campaign has discussed privately with us that it will be a key component of the campaign."
Sources also confirmed that the DeSantis campaign used the super majority legislative session that ended on May 5 to cement his announcement largely centered around culture and LGBTQ+ issues to launch the campaign. These issues include bills he has signed or will sign leading up to June LGBTQ+ Pride including bans on Drag Queens, Don’t Say Gay expansion, Bans on Diversity and inclusion in Florida including state universities, multiple Trans issues including bathrooms, health care and business and medical exclusions, the so called woke and race issues including book bans and even abortion women’s health care choices.
The Governor was able to easily achieve everything he wanted. Including yet unannounced endorsements. During the legislative session there were many alleged attempts to pressure members of the house and senate to secretly endorse the governor leading up to the June LGBTQ+ Pride Month campaign announcement.
My source for the GOP Senator said "...during the session he was asked to endorse Governor DeSantis. In discussion about timing and President Trump there was conversation on waiting. It was very clear that you were either with the Governor or you were not. Ultimately he has pledged an endorsement for the Governor."
the Florida legislator added "When I said I wanted to wait they made it very clear what they had done to support what I wanted to accomplish and how the Governor had done that. At the end of the day I had to choose and Trump was not in that picture."
Critics argue that DeSantis' legislative session was designed to create a culture war agenda, get it passed and then use it to announce his campaign for President of the United States.
The remaining question is why has he planned this. The most obvious answer is that it was designed for a more conservative GOP and Evangelical Base.
But this is unusual because both of the leading GOP candidates are from the same state, Florida. Critics argue a likely conclusion is support for DeSantis vs Trump using this June LGBTQ Pride Month campaign launch.
Anti-LGBTQ+ laws passed in this Florida session have 70 - 80% approval rates from the most conservative of the GOP base. So while the Governor was pursuing that he was also silent on the legal and courtroom crisis that Trump faced. It becomes a perfect storm to launch a Presidential campaign.
Culture war issues against LGBTQ+ that are passed, Trump legal challenges and then high visibility of June Pride Month. Add quiet back room endorsements from most representatives of the Florida Senate and House and it supports what GOP sources have told me what Governor Ron DeSantis is getting ready to do. The timing of this announcement is designed to fight his #1 rival in his own state. Former President Donald J. Trump.
I spoke to several leading LGBTQ+ activists in advance of this breaking news story and they suggested that this has always been straight out of the Ron DeSantis playbook.
For example, last year during June 2022 Pride Month DeSantis traveled to New York to speak just 1 mile from Stonewall National Monument to deliver a speech supporting his ‘Don’t Say Gay’ agenda.
Dave Abrams, DeSantis campaign spokesman on the criticism said “DeSantis will always stand up for what is right and will not be deterred by the radical left.”
In 2021 DeSantis made national and international headlines over June LGBTQ+ Pride month. On June 1 he traveled to a Jacksonville private christian school to sign a bill banning transgender girls from competing in girls and womens sports.
On the same day his department of transportation announced they denied the rainbow bridge lighting celebrations in Jacksonville and Sarasota.
On June 2 he removed $900k from Florida budget for programs serving LGBTQ+ Central Florida. And just days before the June 12, 5th anniversary of the Pulse Massacre he stripped away $150K that had been set aside to provide counseling to Pulse survivors.
Brandon Wolf, a Pulse survivor and spokesman for Equality Florida said about the Governor's June LGBTQ+ Pride Month actions “It feels like pride month, at every turn, it has been insult added to injury.”
Governor Ron DeSantis will be the first candidate in history to launch their Presidential campaign using the celebration of queer existence, the fight for civil rights and dignity to show the most radical conservatives in America he is the choice over former President Donald Trump. #Queer Up Breaking News